Casino gambling: the saga continues...

The Republican ran an article today overviewing a series of studies published in the UConn magazine the Connecticut Economy that statistically evaluate the effect casinos have had on Connecticut towns. Amidst the frenzy of the "will there / won't there" brand of casino coverage, along with the continual reheating of the same arguments for casinos (economy, job creation), and against them (crime, traffic, problem gambling, economic benefits overrated), the numbers from our neighboring state provide a useful frame of reference for us.

Two articles in the Economy struck me as particularly interesting and relevant to our situation in Massachusetts -- Steven Lanza's article "Spill-Free Gaming," which analyzes crime, traffic, and quality of life in relation to casino presence, and "Got Game?", by Maryjane Lenon and Dennis Heffley, which provides a rundown of casino and state revenue, along with some figures relating to money given back to CT's communities by the Pequot and Mohegan Fund.

First, a long list of numbers from those articles:

This fiscal year, according to Lanza's article, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun paid $430.5 million of its slot machine winnings to the state -- about 25% of the total slot machine winnings, and comprising nearly 2% of state revenues. By comparison, Connecticut's entire corporate income tax accounted for $754.2 million of state money in FY06, according to Lenon and Heffley, totalling about 3.2%.

Lanza's article takes a before-and-after look at the CT towns of Ledyard and Montville, the locations of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, respectively.

Regarding crime: According to Lanza's findings from the CT Department of Public Safety, between 1990 and 2000 -- when the casinos opened -- crime fell from 14.3 incidents per 1000 people to 11.9 in Ledyard, and 19.5 to 15 in Montville. This drop was partly due to the economic boom in the 90's, and the fact that many in those areas got older, settled in, etc..

More interesting, perhaps, are Lanza's findings (below) that relate to crime and proximity to a casino. There seems to be very little correlation, if any, of casinos to crime.

From the Winter '08 issue of the Connecticut Economy

Naturally, it's easy to argue these stats have everything to do with the fact that Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods are in rural areas and not in, say, downtown Hartford. And even Lanza concludes his article in saying: "Many studies of other gaming destinations, including Atlantic City and Las Vegas, have found significant social costs in the form of crime, congestion, and property values." But, there you go. Those are bigger cities; bigger cities have more traffic, more crime, more creeps anyway. By that reasoning, Trump's Casino in Holyoke -- maybe not the best idea.

But Palmer -- the other casino target -- has a population of 12,750, according to its 2005-06 town report. Ledyard's population in the 1990's, according to Lenon and Haffley, was under 15,000. Occasionally, someone plays the "small town charm" card in casino debates -- the way we already have or certainly will here. But how do you legislate aesthetics?

Lanza's findings, based on the CT Department of Public Safety, also show little correlation, in Ledyard and Montville, between traffic accidents and casino proximity. What's more, the number of accidents that have occurred in Ledyard and Montville have been less than predicted -- by 200 in Ledyard, by 36 in Montville. Measuring quality of life in terms of property value (granted, one of many ways), however, the results are interesting.

Between 1990 and 2000, property values in those towns dipped by 8%, but in 2000, home values were still $15,000-$25,000 higher than expected -- not necessarily the deteriorating Crack Ave. / Mattresses-in-the-Streets District we're accustomed to imagining.

And, certainly, now, Las Vegas isn't what it used to be. And, as one New Republic article said of porn, resort gambling has become much more conventional, much more normalized and well-groomed by the power of corporate dollars. The Flamingo Hotel is now literally a Hilton. When Fremont Street got too skeevy, the city and the state pulled together to build a dome of light -- yes, really -- over the block. What the Connecticut Economy didn't cover, however, is the effect the casinos have had on local economies, information certainly necessary for a throrough discussion.

Problem gambling and the overall personal effects of gambling, as Lanza suggests, are difficult to evaluate.

According to Lanza's article, the National Council on Problem Gambling estimates that between 1-3% of the population are either pathological or problem gamblers. Plenty of people still have gambling problems where there are no casinos, the same way some of the worst alcoholics are rarely at the bar. Is a casino a glimmering, brain-balming invitation to spend all day bottoming out and selling your house the next? Well, to some extent. But so are, say, online gambling websites, OTBs, the Super Bowl, the NCAA, fantasy baseball, videogames, horse racing, poker games held in peoples' houses or hotel rooms or craps games on the street where there's a bit less security, politeness, or professionalism. The rich and poor both do it -- most of us cut our losses. Much of the time, though, problem gambling is dealt with and felt on a personal level, and, pun very horribly intended, I'd bet they're rarely felt on a community level.